Uefa ponders third club competition

Originally Posted by The Guardian

European football leaders have discussed the possibility of creating a third club competition.

At a meeting of the 54 Uefa members on Wednesday, they explored the merits of a new competition for teams who fail to advance from the qualifying rounds of the Champions League or the second-tier Europa League.

Would be fantastic for LOI teams but then again would our clubs just settle and be happy to compete in this 3rd tier comp instead of pushing themselves to try and qualify for the Europa and CL. That could be the danger with this.

The only way that would happen if the money was better in the new competition compared to progress in the qualifying of the champions league & imo that wouldn't be possible.This proposed competition would only work with TV companies on board & if it wasn't played the same week as other european competitions.

It might mean more opportunities for League of Ireland sides, though the way things are going England's co-efficient might be heading towards ours too.

We had three competitions back in the day with the European Cup, Cup Winners Cup & UEFA / Fairs Cup but they decided to change all that. Are they now thinking "What we had back then was better" ?
What has killed European Competitions & made it the annual bore it has become is the seeding they came up with. Hard to believe that the Zagreb team that beat Arsenal last night had to go though two qualifying rounds & a play off to get to last night. Despite all that their stadium was only half full.
Gone for ever are the days when you could be drawn against one of the top European clubs, the gate receipts from which could keep you going for a whole season.
Instead we get the annual trip to outer Mongolia or some such place. The reason for that of course is that the top European clubs got together & decided they would boycott the UEFA competitions unless they got their own way & tv money gave them the power to do it.
This third competition if it comes to pass will no doubt in time become the only European competition where clubs from the smaller countries will be allowed to compete in. They will get the opportunity to share the crumbs which fall from the big table among themselves & let the real money for the big clubs only.
Tv money has changed the European competitions forever & not for the best I might add.

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Would be fantastic for LOI teams but then again would our clubs just settle and be happy to compete in this 3rd tier comp instead of pushing themselves to try and qualify for the Europa and CL. That could be the danger with this.

No more dangerous that what has happened to various Irish clubs who have gone bust chasing the dream of Champions League group qualification.

A knockout Cup Winners Cup (unseeded - like the way it used to be) would surely be attractive. The bigger clubs wouldn't have to play so many matches in group stages and smaller clubs like Irish ones would have the possibility a glamour tie against some of the bigger European teams.

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The reason for that of course is that the top European clubs got together & decided they would boycott the UEFA competitions unless they got their own way & tv money gave them the power to do it.

It was more to put to bed a European super league that the top clubs would compete in rather than their domestic leagues as proposed by moneymen. So UEFA came up with a watered down version with financial backing that suited the domestic associations, clubs and UEFA, and in the process left us minnows behind without the chance of a marquee draw.

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It could be a decent idea, as a safety net tournament for leagues like ourselves. Who wouldn't want the chance to go into a competition with the likes of Finland, Albania, Macedonia, Wales, the Irish League, etc.? LoI clubs would actually have a decent chance of winning it. So as long as the money was there, and it was finished by the end of the year, it'd be a nice wee boost for us.
The danger would be if they also allowed teams from the higher leagues in if they didn't qualify for the CL/EL. If a non-Cl/EL qualifying English, German, Italian team got in, they probably wouldn't give it much attention and still win regardless. Though it'd be hard to balance excluding some leageus, whilst still allowing lower ones access to the CL/EL.

Was thinking about the teams who would qualify. So barring a great day for the parish, we'd have every Irish, Welsh and N.I clubs in the pot, with a load of crap teams from other small nations, and a few clubs from eastern Europe no one has ever heard of.
Lets say they only entered teams who went out in round 1/2 in both CL and EL, the best(most notable) teams I spotted who went out at that round from a quick scan excluding our lot are:

If you add in 3rd round losers from the EL, I think the quality of the competition would be worryingly strong, from a 'for the small nations' standpoint. Many of these teams would have no interest/still destroy our lot.

If you added in 4th round losers, you'd be throwing in the likes of Southampton, Young Boys, Brondby, Standard Liege, Steaua Bucharest.

So, I figure it'd have to be strictly only for clubs who went out in the 1st or 2nd round of both comps or it would end up being very bloated, filled with a lot of clubs who have no interest being there and with some bad miss matches.

3rd placed CL teams who miss out on the CL Round of 16 enter the Europa League Round of 32.
CL play-off losers enter the Europa League group stages.
CL Q3 losers enter the Europa League play-offs.
By that logic should UEFA enter the CL Q2 losers into Europa League Q3?

38 league champions enter the Champions League qualifiers before CL Q3.
21 league champions are knocked out of Europe before CL Q3. Should the Europa League safety net should be extended for these teams as well? It would mean the likes of Dundalk last year would get at least 4 games in Europe. League champions in my own humble opinion should be guaranteed more than one round of European action.

If UEFA are to bring in a third competition, the only teams I would see possibly fitting the criteria of coming from lower leagues and requiring more European experience are the 21 league champions knocked out before CL Q3.

In the article about the mooted competition, it was suggested that the competition could be completed before the end of the respective calendar year without going into the next year. CL Q3, CL play-offs and CL group stage take place of 10 matchdays. 21 league champions could complete a knock-out competition in the same timescale.

I suppose some questions of many are:
Would the 21 league champions be enthused by such a competition? What would be a fair reward for winning such a competition? Should the winner be guaranteed a place in the following season's Champions League Q3 or play-off round? An automatic CL group stage spot would not be appropriate for the level of competition. A CL play-off spot would at least guarantee a Europa group stage place. It could be a decent carrot for teams at that level?

Originally Posted by Acornvilla

Was thinking about the teams who would qualify. So barring a great day for the parish, we'd have every Irish, Welsh and N.I clubs in the pot, with a load of crap teams from other small nations, and a few clubs from eastern Europe no one has ever heard of.
Lets say they only entered teams who went out in round 1/2 in both CL and EL, the best(most notable) teams I spotted who went out at that round from a quick scan excluding our lot are:

So, I figure it'd have to be strictly only for clubs who went out in the 1st or 2nd round of both comps or it would end up being very bloated, filled with a lot of clubs who have no interest being there and with some bad miss matches.

Expanding on what I have said above, if as you suggest the added EL 1st and 2nd round losers as well, you would be looking at about 105 clubs. In a knock-out format, 105 clubs would equate to 7 two-legged rounds. If they played on the same weeks as CL Q3, CL PO and CL group stage, there would be 5 rounds before Christmas and the semi-finals and final after Christmas. It might be enough to just enter the 21 league champions of the lower nations into a shorter tournament.

Last edited by legendz; 21/05/2016 at 9:42 PM.

A Championship: 4 years - 8 first teams - 0 financially ruined. First Division '14: 7 first teams.
Opportunity seems lost somewhere in between for new clubs/regions to become part of LoI family.